It's a Family Affair

Thanksgiving week. FINALLY a break! It has been a great 5 weeks of BSO classical concerts, with 2 guest conductors and 3 weeks with Marin. Mix in a couple of November chamber concerts, and I am a little tired out. One day away from the violin, then back to practicing. In two and a half weeks, I go to New Haven to perform the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the Berkeley College (of Yale University) Orchestra with my son, Stephen conducting. I'm excited about this project, as I haven't performed any concerto with any orchestra for over 10 years. And the Sibelius is my favorite of many favorite violin concertos. There is nothing like it: it is a virtuosic workout for a violinist, but it is too great to call it a "showpiece." The orchestral writing is superb; after all, it is Sibelius.

Making music with my family goes back a very long way. When I was quite young, I used to play violin while my dad accompanied me on the piano. My brother took up the violin, and my sisters, pianists to start, eventually also learned the cello and the viola. So a least once a year we like to get together and play great string quartets. Now that there is another generation of string players, we can expand that to string quintets, etc. when we want to.

Meanwhile, I'm grateful that both my boys, Eric and Stephen, are home this week from law school and college. We'll have a nice Thanksgiving with my parents and my sister's family, who will all drive up from Virginia Thursday.

And if this weather would just clear a bit, we could manage one more outdoor tennis match this fall!

The Joys of Engagement

Tonight I'm going to see Maryland Opera Studio's L'elisir d'amore (Elixir of Love) at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. (Yes, tonight is the last performance-not fabulous on the timing!) I've heard some great things about this year's opera students, so I'm hoping to thoroughly enjoy myself (as you will too, if you come.)
And now, similar to the Baltimore Symphony's multimedia for events, you can further engage with with the performance before and afterwards by going to the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library Previews page to find books, recordings, and scores relating to the event.
With so much cyber media these days, there's no excuse not to be an educated concertgoer!

The Difference Between a Bassoon & a Violin

Here's a funny story to follow up on the performances of Beethoven's Symphony #4 that the BSO performed a few weeks ago, and that the Berkeley College Orchestra of Yale University also performed, with my son Stephen conducting, the same weekend.

We were comparing notes that week, and I asked how the violins were doing with the very difficult last movement. Stephen said the violins were really cooking, then he told me about the notoriously hard bassoon lick midway through the last movement. It is a few bars of very fast 16th notes more suited for violins than for bassoons! In the dress rehearsal, Stephen looked up at the bassoonist to give him a cue for this passage, but the bassoon was sitting on the musician's lap, and the musician just shook his head "no," as if to say "you gotta be kidding me."

In the end, Stephen and the bassoonist worked out the version of the passage to play for the concert. Seems like an effective technique; maybe I will try the instrument in the lap, shaking my head thing the next time we have an impossible passage! lol.

How I LOVE the Fall!

The beauty of the leaves on the trees, and especially the crispness of the air. I think I also love fall because, though a nice vacation at the end of the summer is always welcome, we get back to work on great music.

It's also perfect time for tennis, usually. A bunch of BSO guys play often on Monday: David Coombs, Ken Goldstein, Ivan Stefanovic, Chris Williams, Karin Brown's husband Dan. Jon Carney sometimes plays too, though not lately. We always whoop it up onthe court, pretending for a day that we are athletes, not just musicians.

Fall seems to be the only part of the year when I remember to ride my bike. I have a mountain bike, though I discovered that rough trails weren't exactly kind to the muscles in mmy forearms, which get enough wear and tear playing the violin. I live fairly near Worthington Valley, north of Owings Mills/Reisterstown, so it is easy for me to ride through a couple of neighborhoods and get into the great part of Baltimore County that is still horse farms, etc. Great vistas from my bike!

Mahler's Symphony No. 4 is on the program this week, conducted by Marin Alsop. There is such a great sense of peace in the work, less of the overt drama characteristic of most of his symphonies. It has been a long time since we performed it, so I will savor the rehearsals and performances of it.

Like Father, Like Son

I'm looking forward to the concert this week, Simply Classical. Louis Langree will be our guest conductor. He conducted us in the Mozart Requiem a couple of years ago, and I enjoyed him then. One of the interesting parts of our job is to be able to experience the inspiration of guest artists, both conductors and soloists. They come from all over the world to make music here in Baltimore and at Strathmore (and occasionally, like this week, in Wye Mills on the eastern shore.)

Simone Dinnerstein will make her BSO debut with us, playing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23. I have heard that her playing is wonderful. By the way, she also happens to be a beautiful young woman. Today she has an interview on WAMU's Kojo Nnamdi show at 1:30 pm. Listen live at wamu.org! Should be very interesting.

We will also perform Haydn's Symphony No. 44 and Beethoven's 4th Symphony. I love the 4th: it isn't performed as frequently as many of Beethoven's others, but it is a great piece. The outer movements are lots of fun, and the slow movement is gorgeous! Coincidentally, my son Stephen, a student a Yale University and an aspiring conductor, will be conducting a student orchestra in Beethoven's 4th Symphony this Saturday evening, too. We will be comparing notes, I'm sure.

The BSO and -State Your Name Here-

Have you ever fantasized about playing alongside Emily Skala on flute, or perhaps thought about sharing some nice harmonic support with Chris Dudley in the brass section? Well, here's your chance, but you'll need to sign up early on November 2.

The BSO is auditioning "Rusty Musicians" to play the fourth movement of the Tchaik 4. I've seen this kind of publicity before, but not with such a top tier symphony orchestra. This should be interesting...

Reflections on Bartok

Last week we recorded Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, a 20th Century masterpiece. Bartok used folk elements in his music; he combined them with an amazing mathematical sense for structure. Bartok is rarely "easy listening." The first time I heard a Bartok string quartet I thought it was noise. The music becomes intelligible when the listener can grasp some of the unusual harmonies through repeated hearing. Marin showed Bartok's connection to Eastern European folk music and its harmonic language by having the group Harmonia perform on stage before the BSO played the Bartok.

The Concerto, like most music Bartok wrote, is a very difficult piece. I think that, with lots of good practice and four performances, we were able to do it justice. In June we will record another piece by Bartok, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste. Eventually we will release those two pieces together on a CD.

This week Jack Everly returns for his always entertaining Pops programs. The program this week is "Hollywood: The Epics," and the Baltimore Choral Arts Society will be performing with us.

Come have fun with Jack and us this weekend!